Almost Free

A Story about Family and Race in Antebellum Virginia

Eva Wolf Sheppard

Publication Year: 2012

In Almost Free, Eva Sheppard Wolf uses the story of Samuel Johnson, a free black man from Virginia attempting to free his family, to add detail and depth to our understanding of the lives of free blacks in the South.

There were several paths to freedom for slaves, each of them difficult. After ten years of elaborate dealings and negotiations, Johnson earned manumission in August 1812. An illiterate “mulatto” who had worked at the tavern in Warrenton as a slave, Johnson as a freeman was an anomaly, since free blacks made up only 3 percent of Virginia's population. Johnson stayed in Fauquier County and managed to buy his enslaved family, but the law of the time required that they leave Virginia if Johnson freed them. Johnson opted to stay. Because slaves' marriages had no legal standing, Johnson was not legally married to his enslaved wife, and in the event of his death his family would be sold to new owners. Johnson's story dramatically illustrates the many harsh realities and cruel ironies faced by blacks in a society hostile to their freedom.

Wolf argues that despite the many obstacles Johnson and others faced, race relations were more flexible during the early American republic than is commonly believed. It could actually be easier for a free black man to earn the favor of elite whites than it would be for blacks in general in the post-Reconstruction South. Wolf demonstrates the ways in which race was constructed by individuals in their day-to-day interactions, arguing that racial status was not simply a legal fact but a fluid and changeable condition. Almost Free looks beyond the majority experience, focusing on those at society's edges to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of freedom in the slaveholding South.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Author’s Note

This book is not fiction. I have not made up facts, moved
events around in time, or invented dialogue. But this book, even
more than most history books, is an act of imagination. I wanted
to bring to life a person who reached...

1. A New Birth of Freedom

Samuel Johnson stepped from the dim courthouse to the
bright outdoors, the air heavy with late summer’s smells—grass,
earth, horses, sweat. The town center stirred with the bustle of
court day. Men and women from miles around had come to...

2. Among an Anomalous Population

The first step Samuel Johnson had to take to free his family
was to purchase them. They would not then be free. They still
would be slaves. But with Johnson as their owner they would not
be sold away from him...

3. Petitioning for Freedom in an Era of Slavery

For a while Samuel Johnson could accept that he held
his family as his slaves—but only for a while. As he aged, he
worried more and more about it. Johnson knew that their legal
status held great importance...

4. Visions of Rebellion

Perhaps Nat Turner was responding partly to the greater
restrictions on liberty in Virginia when he plotted what became
the most famous and most deadly slave rebellion in American
history. In late August...

5. Race, Identity, and Community

Spencer Malvin had decided who he wanted to be: a free
man in a free state where he could freely denounce slavery. His
departure forced others to make choices about their identities too.
One enslaved man named Sandy chose...

6. Legacies

Samuel Johnson did die before he left. Or, rather, he left only
by dying.
Johnson had long feared what would happen upon his death.
If he believed in heaven he could be pretty sure that he would go
there, but he feared death...

Afterword

It is possible to trace Samuel Johnson’s descendants into
the early twenty-first century. I began that quest in an effort to
find living descendants, with the hope that they might share some
family stories...

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments sections, like Samuel Johnson’s petitions
to the Virginia legislature, tend to be formulaic. But I mean what
I say as sincerely as he did. It really is a great pleasure to thank
the many people who helped make this book...

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